The World War II movie “Lucky Strike” is part survival thriller and part throwback hymn to military heroism. It’s quite possible to appreciate the kill-or-be-killed action, starring Scott Eastwood as a man caught behind enemy lines, even as its Greatest Generation patriotism feels preserved in amber from another era in cinema and history.
The ground-level perspective stays close with Captain Castle (Eastwood), a resolutely ordinary soldier whose ornery flashes never quite resolve into rebellious swagger. He leads a group mission to disrupt Nazi Panzer tank activity during the Battle of the Bulge, but the explosive chaos strands him alone, forcing him to hobble across contested countryside in search of American lines.
Based upon research by Marc Frydman, who collaborated with the director, Rod Lurie, on the screenplay, Castle’s series of travails feel like a compendium of handed-down war stories: hopping into a Nazi tank, defending a family in a farmhouse, happening upon an American truck full of dead soldiers, radioing for help all the while. The camera practically crawls the terrain with Castle, and despite a sludgy digital look, the wonky pacing gets at the jolts and grind of war.
Eastwood’s Castle passes as just-doing-my-duty-sir soldier or gamer avatar, and the movie, directed by Rod Lurie, doesn’t require more. But a frame story burnishes his selfless decency as a civilian back home too, when he looks up a hero behind the scenes. It’s possible to dismiss all this as hokey, but in an age when a transactional U.S. government keeps withdrawing troops from Europe, Castle’s perseverance could land as both reminder and rebuke.
Lucky Strike
Rated R for violence, some grisly images, and language. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters.
